Donald Trump and his administration have implemented a variety of new reforms since taking office Jan. 20, 2017 and they have been widely discussed by the public.

While most comments have focused upon Trump’s awful immigration policies, his ridiculous Twitter account, and his overly floppy hair, his ideology regarding the environment has been heavily neglected.

Between pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, having the EPA practically dismiss climate change, planning to repeal the clean power plan, diminishing protections of national monuments, and increasing offshore drilling, the Trump administration is destroying our environment.

What they are failing to realize is that we have only been given one Earth. It is as though they want us to become WALL-E and support pollution. Is it so wrong that I do not want my children and my children’s children inhaling fossil fuels and living on a planet so corrupted by pollution that it no longer looks like the beautiful place we know and love?

I mean it already does not look like the world we used to know as little kids. In 1973, Congress adopted the Endangered Species Act meaning that animals would receive more serious protections than just being classified as threatened. Many animals benefited from this act, one of which being grizzly bears.

Before America was inhabited by Europeans in around 1850, there were 50 to 100 thousand grizzly bears roaming the west and southwest. Settlers were encouraged to hunt these bears because they were considered a nuisance, dangerous and inconvenient. But I can tell you for certain the grizzly bears were definitely here first. They weren’t bothering anyone, but man always triumphs.

Further, people thought it was fun to shoot these innocent creatures because of the power they felt over these harmless yet enormous animals. Grizzly bears do not attack unless they are provoked; naturally there are outliers, however the majority of the times, the bears are the victims. Settlers shot and killed 99 percent of the grizzly bears, and this species has never recovered. This greed for power is resulting in the annihilation of a species. Interestingly enough, this same exact idea applies to our government. Power hungry political giants will knock down anything in their way to reach the top just like the hunters back in the 1800’s.

In 1975, there were roughly 1,000 grizzly bears left in the lower 48 states, and they were placed on the endangered species list. Someone finally realized that a species was nearing extinction, and it only took them over 100 years to recognize this problem. Somehow it took the United States just over 10 years to recover from the Great Depression with a war economy, but it took the government over 100 years to realize a species was nearing extinction. What a perceptive government we have.

Then, George W. Bush had the bears removed from the list in 2007 despite the fact that they were still very low in numbers. It’s not like they could speak up for themselves and explain that they were okay with being taken off of the list. Instead, powerful people with high authority in the government were able to dictate the lives of an entire species. Terrifying right? Sound familiar?

This same concept applies to the Department of the Interior as well as Wildlife Services. The two organizations were made to protect wildlife but are composed of many powerful people who actually operate to murder animals. Their intentions may seem positive, but in reality these two organizations contain employees who take bribes from farmers, have no regard for the environment and lie about their actions very often. In 2008, The Department of the Interior was cited with financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct according to The New York Times. The organization has been in trouble more than once, and their behavior has not changed.

For instance, in some cases if a grizzly bear is “accidentally hunted,” Wildlife Services has a number of excuses they use. “The hunter thought it was a black bear.” “It got hit by a car, so the hunters wanted to put it out of its misery.” “It charged the hunter, so it was self defense.” The lies are endless.

Although grizzly bears are just one animal being unfairly hunted, they are the perfect example of the corruption in our government regarding the environment. In 2007, my grandfather sued the federal government to return grizzly bears to the endangered species list. He ultimately won the case by teaming up with environmental organizations and others fighting for the same cause. But the victory for animals like this did not last long.

In March of 2016, the government once again removed grizzly bears from the list. My grandfather is currently going through the same process to return them to protection because it is very evident that they are still in danger of becoming extinct.

The government removed them from the list for its own self-gain. It is able to drill for oil in certain areas that were once protected, can hunt these innocent animals for pleasure and is maintaining a very conservative set of policies to make red states happy.
Between pollution and a complete disregard for our nation’s wildlife, our planet is being horribly harmed and we are doing nothing to terminate this corruption. We cannot push it onto the next generation because at a certain point, there will be no next generation. It is not like we can magically migrate to Mars in the future.

We need to be assertive and draw attention to an issue that is receiving barely any coverage. Mars does not really have the bare necessities for human life, so we really should take better care of our Earth — for ourselves, and our children.